Mignon - The Penguin Girl !!!

Ruth
Davis alias Mignon, the penguin girl had seal limbs a disease called
PHOCOMELIA. It is what gave her the penguin appearance.

Mignon was born in the early 1900′s, likely around 1910, with a
condition called phocomelia. Phocomelia typically results in the
stunting of limbs and the fusion of digits. In Mignon’s case her fingers
were fused in such a way as to resemble flippers. Furthermore, as her
truncated limbs forced Mignon to waddle rather than walk – her stage
name of ‘The Penguin Lady’ was both apt and easily assigned.

Her name, Mignon, was not her birth name. Most reports indicate that
her given name was Ruth. Mignon

Mignon - The Penguin Girl !!!

is the French word for ‘cute’ and she
likely adopted it early in her career. In fact, for quite some time she
was know as ‘Mickey Mignon’ and even today her true surname is
debatable.

While Mignon often wore a two piece bathing suit to show off her unique
physique, she was not content to rely on appearance alone. She learned
to play the rather exotic marimba, an African instrument similar to a
xylophone. She proved to be very proficient as she was not only
featured in numerous sideshows, her act was also featured at the 1933
Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and the 1939 and 1940 World’s
Fairs in New York.

Mignon married twice in her lifetime. She had a healthy son with her
first husband, a ‘normal’ man by the last name of LaArgo and in the
1950′s she married fellow sideshow performer Earl Davis, a gnarled and
crippled former acrobat known as ‘Hoppy the Frog Boy’. The two performed
together for close to a decade.
Following her retirement in the 1960 Mignon disappeared from public view and the final chapters of her story remain shrouded.